


storm on the horizon

by irisation



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong
Genre: I hate myself, chapters arent necessarily in chronological order, i dont actually know how to write, it was supposed to be one chapter but i wrote more, kim dokja is a rat, no beta we die like kim dokja, someone save me, why did I write this, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 5,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27284878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisation/pseuds/irisation
Summary: They were prepared for a storm: physical, violent, and unrelenting.No one was prepared for Kim Dokja.(a collection of excerpts from a longer story that hasn't been written)
Comments: 170
Kudos: 345
Collections: Time Travel and World Travel





	1. Excerpt 1

**Author's Note:**

> i don't usually write so this is my first fanfic haha i needed kim dokja to cause chaos and confusion in universes other than ORV so here it is  
> sorry if the formatted weird or the phrasing is horrid or the spacing is ugly because i make no claim to be good at writing  
> i also suck at tenses i apologize oops
> 
> update: it's been one day and i have gathered the courage to write more so there may or may not be multiple chapters someone save me the summary says collection but it'll probs be less than 5 haha
> 
> another update: its passed 5 idk how i got here

The oracle told them of a storm approaching. 

They expected the ground to shake and the skies to rumble. What they didn’t expect was that the storm would come in the form of silky feathers on powerful wings, demon horns and a soft white coat. 

They were prepared for a storm: physical, violent, and unrelenting. 

No one was prepared for Kim Dokja. 

The oracle told them of universes colliding.

They expected it to be the collision of religion, of pantheons and deities. They did not expect the words of Man to manifest in Story and Fable, or the stars to fall out of the sky and scatter across the ocean. That Constellations would step down from the heavens and tread the grounds of mortals. 

They did not expect a dreamer, a reader, an observer of realities, to walk up to their front doorstep and knock. 

They were wary of the changes that the storm had brought. A new facet of the gods of Olympus and memories of a realm that once was. When the storm came it was in the form of ordinary man, average and forgettable. 

So nonchalant that he looked out of place in the field of violence and danger, clothes unruffled and hands in pockets. He introduced himself as Kim Dokja and that he was looking for someone named Yoo Joonghyuk. 

One of the campers asked if he knew who his parents were and it was revealed that he was either mistaken, confused, or utterly, entirely human. Soon after, however, they were overwhelmed with the scent of pomegranate and above his head was a helm of shadows. 

To be claimed by Hades was one matter. However, to be claimed by Persephone? Who hated anything and everything to do with Hades's infidelity and therefore his demigod children? Who was this man to be claimed by both?

────────────────────────

When he was summoned to the Underworld by his father, Nico di Angelo didn’t know what to expect.

What he stumbled across was a banquet table of food with his father seated at the head, Persephone at his left, and an unknown man at his right. His father and stepmother were in forms he didn’t recognize and their mannerisms were different from what he was used to.

Bewildered, Nico turned his sight to the stranger. The man was unremarkable and it was difficult to remember what he looked like when you placed your attention elsewhere. Nico’s mind was filled with questions but his train of thought was lost when he heard the man ask, “Mother?”

What? Mother? Persephone had no human children and yet this man had called her Mother. 

Nico felt as if the ground had crumbled beneath his feet when Persephone smiled softly and replied, “Yes, little Heir?”

────────────────────────

When the storm came, they thought they were ready. They didn’t realize that with it, the storm brought waves.

History changed, Stories unraveled, and Fables faded. The Underworld had an Heir and Olympus had fallen. The Probability of that particular Story had warped and shifted.

The storm brought change. And with it, change brought the world’s ■■■.


	2. Excerpt 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dionysus had a massive headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this this morning and now i want to cry

When black boots and white coat tails crossed Camp Half-Blood borders, Dionysus had a massive headache.  
It felt as if there were thoughts in his mind that, though foreign, were entirely his own, along with a set of experiences he couldn’t quite remember. 

The word Gigantomachia came to the forefront multiple times, feeling familiar yet worn like the name of a childhood bedtime Story that had long since been forgotten. 

While it felt as if he should have known the Story like the back of his hand, there was something odd about it. Like there was something missing. As if he had trouble remembering something much, much more important than the Story itself. 

It was as if there had been an additional chapter, a change or an edit, that altered the meaning of the story entirely, leaving readers with no ground to stand on. As if someone had modified the ending and twisted the consequences. ~~As if someone had rewritten the Epilogue.~~

It was also as if there was another version of himself that was emerging and melding with his current forms, shoving impressions of events that had never occurred and people he had never met into gaps and crevices in his memory.

When a man walked into the Big House with a request, Dionysus’ headache only worsened. It felt like the man was another headache altogether. He didn’t want to deal with this and his patience was running thin.

When the man introduced himself as Kim Dokja and looked at him with a spark of recognition, Dionysus thought, “Oh.”

Two forms were enough to handle. Roman and Greek clashed and collided and it was enough trouble to deal with on a regular basis. With a set of extra memories of a timeline that seemed so, so different from their current reality, Dionysus felt exhausted. He was already banned from alcohol for the foreseen future and now he has to deal with Kim Dokja. The one who had defeated Ares and Poseidon and had changed the Story of Gigantomachia. The one who was the cause of this collision of universes and this headache and literally every problem that had occurred in the past month. 

Looking back, it was really no surprise, but it was still a major pain in the neck. Yes, times were fun and it was hilarious watching him get drunk in the Past, but if he knew it would lead to _this_ mess on top of _this_ universe’s issues? 

He sighed and looked up at the man who stood waiting in front of him. There was a curl at the corner of his lips like he couldn’t quite suppress a smile and a glint in his eye as he watched for a reaction. 

Kim Dokja, this _rat_.


	3. Excerpt 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He walked forward, slowed, stopped, and _breathed_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm struggling
> 
> i had to give myself a quick refresher because i haven't read percy jackson in so long so im sorry if stuff is wrong or inaccurate  
> im coiling up the canon timeline like its earbuds i put in my pocket  
> im so sorry  
> i dont actually know where we are in the timeline rip  
> also idk what i was planning to do with nico and kdj but this is where my fingers went so this is where the story's going ig  
> what am i doing someone save me
> 
> btw excerpts might not end up in chronological order and im winging it so updates will be sporadic and until my inspiration runs out
> 
> my tenses suck

Nico stepped out of the shadows and onto the floors of the Hades cabin. He walked forward, slowed, stopped, and _breathed_.

Everything was a mess inside his head as he tried to process what had happened.

When he stepped into the banquet room, he saw an unfamiliar face. When he stepped into the banquet room he saw a happy family. When he stepped into the banquet room, _he felt like an intruder_.

Before the man could ask his question, his eye caught Nico’s and he paused. His stepmother noticed this, looked up, and faced him as well. Nico involuntarily took a step back, his feet eager to run, run, and run from this painful image of what he ~~could have had, _should have had_ ,~~ had always wanted.

A complete family at the dinner table, eating in comfortable silence, and enjoying each other’s company.  
It was like a snake coiling around his lungs, restricting his breathing and hissing in his ear about how he didn’t deserve something like this. Whispering in his mind that _son of Hades, even your divine family reject you. Your stepmother hates you, your father has other children. What keeps you here? They don’t need you._

Although things had gotten better as time passed and he made acquaintances in each camp, Nico knew he would never truly be accepted. There was always some sort of underlying prejudice, a bias against death and all things related. He spent his time at cemeteries, more comfortable with shadows of people than the living, breathing ones. It made others wary and uncomfortable, for fear of death was a common fear. 

Once Hades was accepted on Olympus, their behavior had done a complete 180 degree turn. After the fight in Manhattan, they were “in awe” and called him “cool,” like they had never doubted him in the first place. If nearly dying in battle for people who didn’t care for him was the only way for them to accept him, what did it take for them to _like_ him?

That acceptance hadn’t even lasted a year. Just a few weeks after, people were already starting to distance themselves from him, to avoid him, to isolate him once more, as if they’d never once shown their approval. 

Timeskip a little and he was in a jar. A jar where he was living off of just a few seeds from his stepmother’s garden. He almost died and he thought _I could have died alone and no one would have noticed_.

Timeskip some more and he was a corn plant. A _corn plant_. He couldn’t do anything but think. 

And think he did. He thought about what he was doing there, risking anything and everything for people who didn't even like him. He wondered why he did what he did and why he was putting so much effort into this when, in the end, nothing would change. 

_Nothing would change_.

He _knew_ this. 

Even disregarding how uncomfortable his powers made others feel, he was out of his time; he was just a boy from the past century, misplaced and not belonging. He knew little of the childhoods that most demigods were familiar with and he had lost _time, so much time_ to the Lotus Eaters. 

Part of him had never wanted to grow up. The part that mourned his mother, his sister, his _past_ . The part of him that wailed and grieved and begged to be let go. It cried out for family, for comfort, for _love_. It wanted acceptance and it wanted affection. It wanted something that he would never be given and something he knew he didn’t deserve. 

It wanted-

  
“Would you like to join us?”

Startled, Nico looked up at who had spoken. It was the man at the table who _had everything_. 

His smile was a little strange and a little off putting, but it wasn’t mean. 

Nico took a glance at Persephone and almost did a double take. She wasn’t looking at Nico but she had an expression that almost looked _soft_. 

He had only ever seen distaste or dislike on her face and he didn’t realize she could look like that. He had always had the image of an evil stepmother in his head, even when she started to try to be kinder towards him. Deep down he knew that he had wanted someone to blame. He couldn’t find anyone, so he had picked her. She disliked him and he disliked her; it was just the way things were. 

But this was different. 

It was something he hadn’t seen and hadn’t been shown. It was a side of her that he had never wanted to know. He wanted to blame her and dislike her and hate her and he wanted to box her under the evil stepmother image, for if he didn’t blame her, who could he blame? 

“Well?”  
  
Nico turned to look back at the stranger. 

“Sit with us.”  
  
Nico looked at his father. His father’s face was unreadable. It was up to him to choose for himself. 

He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and took a step forward. 

“Alright.”

The banquet table’s seating was awkward for him. He couldn’t sit next to his father, so his options were to sit next to Persephone or next to the stranger.

He chose to sit by the stranger’s side. 

Shadows wiggled and curled around his ankles as he swung his legs in nervousness. He couldn’t meet the man’s eyes again for they held something deeper, something older, something pained, and longing, and _oh, so very welcoming_. 

“I’m Kim Dokja. What’s your name?”

A name for the man who had it all. 

Nico hesitated, took a moment to gather himself, and opened his mouth.

“Nico. Nico di Angelo.”

Nico stepped out of the darkness and into a world that was no longer what he once knew.

Nico stepped out of the shadows and onto the floors of the Hades cabin, knowing for sure that he had a place where he belonged.


	4. Excerpt 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico took it back. 
> 
> He took _everything_ back.
> 
> Kim Dokja was a nuisance and he deserved to _cry_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i tried  
> i tried  
> i really really tried  
> but i couldn't stop myself from adding rat kdj  
> sorry

Nico took it back. 

He took _everything_ back.

Kim Dokja was a nuisance and he deserved to _cry_. 

Did Nico ever say he liked Kim Dokja? 

Because if he did, he took back every word. 

Kim Dokja was an absolute _rat_.

He never told the complete truth and he died as often as people blinked.

He casually showed up in the Underworld with a deteriorating and crumbling body, telling them that everything was fine. 

He then proceeded to just _leave_ and fly to _gods know where_ , like it wasn’t even their problem.

_I’ll be fine,_ he said, _I always have a plan,_ he said.

Liar, liar, _pants on fire._

Kim Dokja deserved to be punched in the gut every time he came back to life because _Hades, was it getting tiring to panic every time Kim Dokja died, later realizing he’d somehow managed to revive himself_.

Nico decided that _one day_ , no matter what he had against Persephone, he would ask her and his father for permission to lock Kim Dokja in a cellar in Elysium until he _repented_ and _swore_ to restrain his little rat heart.

It didn’t matter what it took. 

  
Kim Dokja deserved to _suffer_.


	5. Excerpt 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of a sudden, there was a ripple. A massive tide as space distorted and warped around them.
> 
> All of a sudden, they were falling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im on a roll  
> but one day i will go on a weeks long hiatus  
> after which you will see me emerge from the abyss  
> just to bring you rat kdj

Kim Dokja admitted to himself that he didn’t always have a plan. 

And this was one of those times.

He didn’t quite know, and he wasn’t quite sure, how exactly it all happened, but the last thing he remembered was falling.

It was like a dream almost, clear yet blurry in the memory of his mind’s eye.

He was a star, shining bright and twinkling so happily in the boundless and endless and lonely expanse of space.

Close, yet far away, were other stars, glittering and bubbly in their joy. 

All of a sudden, there was a ripple. A massive tide as space distorted and warped around them.

All of a sudden, they were falling. 

  
They fell and fell and fell to a planet and burned in the atmosphere of a large, blue mass. 

In the back of his mind, Kim Dokja knew it was Earth. He knew it was Earth, but it was not the Earth he knew. 

What was different? What was the same? 

Before he could ponder these questions of “What?” he was plummeting through the air of this Earth-not-Earth and hitting the waves of an ocean so vast.

The surging waters welcomed his arrival and those of his neighboring stars. They shattered across the rolling waves, scattering their light into the deep, deep water. 

Like waking from a heavy sleep, Kim Dokja’s eyelids felt weighed down and resisted movement as he tried to open them.

The sight that unfolded was that of a bright blue sky. 

_Well, this is kind of new._

While Kim Dokja was alone as he woke, he had a feeling that his family was there with him.

Whether that meant that they were there in spirit, or literally in whatever realm he had fallen into, he didn’t know. 

While Kim Dokja admitted that he didn’t always have a plan, he couldn’t plan for something he hadn’t read. 

He had no true omniscient point of view this time, but he did know that his ability to handle problems as they came was _at least_ pretty well developed. 

And so he started his search for his family, a family that was looking for him too.

And what better way to look for his family than to spread Yoo Joonghyuk’s name around like it’s a highly contagious plague?


	6. Excerpt 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These days, Nico seemed a tad bit angry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nico might be a bit ooc oops  
> kdj is still a rat

These days, Nico seemed a tad bit angry.

He’d always seemed a little grim or a little sulky or whatever you’d usually describe the typical Nico-mood, but this was more than usual. He was glowering into his lunch with mutters that sounded like “that stupid rat” or “gonna kill him again” and it was putting everyone on edge. 

“Uh, Nico, are you okay?”

Nico looked up abruptly and his eyes were burning with a passion they hadn’t seen since the last major battle. 

“ _Absolutely not._ Once I get my hands on that idiotic brother of mine I’m going to kill him in a way he’s never died before. That guy never thinks to tell anyone before he does anything, always going on about Yoo Joonghyuk this, Yoo Joonghyuk that, like some fanboy chasing after an idol. Yoo Joonghyuk probably doesn’t even know where he is yet and that rat’s already having _so much fun_ blaming his _life-and-death-companion_ for everything he does.”

Everyone was listening in at this point and no one was eating anymore, eyes wide and staring at Nico as he continued to rant. 

“He always says he has a plan while having no sense of logic to anything he’s doing and never cares about his own health. He flies off as he pleases and keeps dying like he wins the lottery every time he does and it’s _infuriating_.”

Nico was panting by the end of his tirade and he seemed to fold in on himself, a bashful red coloring his cheeks and ears in embarrassment, his scowl still in place. 

“Wait, did you say Yoo Joonghyuk?”

Winding down, Nico looked towards the camper who had asked. 

“Yeah, why?”

A few others spoke up.

“A man keeps coming by camp every few days, saying he’s looking for someone named Yoo Joonghyuk.”

“I’ve heard he’s introduced himself _as_ Yoo Joonghyuk before.” 

“He looks kind of bland? Kind of plain? Sometimes has these massive black wings and smacks people on accident with them?”

“He left yesterday, a little while before you came back. ”

  
Nico stared at them incredulously.

“ _Oh my gods,_ that idiot didn’t even think to tell me he was periodically visiting Camp Half-Blood like some weird stray rat homing pigeon hybrid-”


	7. Excerpt 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yoo Joonghyuk opened his eyes to a sky full of stars.
> 
> Immediately after, he sneezed and had the feeling that a certain rat was speaking ill of him.

Rumors were quietly spreading like petals dispersing in the wind.

A man in a white coat looking for a friend. “A companion,” he’d said.

Witnesses said he looked plain. Unappealing. Utterly forgettable.

Others confessed he had horns peeking through his hair and huge black wings, silky smooth and as dark as the night sky. 

Some declared that he looked like a normal man on a casual walk through suburbia.

A few insisted he was a demon, black-red gushing from wounds, too much blood loss to not be lethal, crumbling limbs and a pained smile.

These onlookers agreed, however, that the focus of this man’s search was “Yoo Joonghyuk.”

And yet there were others who said he claimed he _was_ Yoo Joonghyuk. 

They said that he had taken the identity of someone looking for himself to separate the person from the name. 

That he averted attention from himself altogether, the focus on “Yoo Joonghyuk,” and not the man they had met. 

Whispers of Yoo Joonghyuk and the man who was searching for him were becoming more and more commonplace.

The source of the rumors, however, was something akin to a mirage or phantom. He seemed to fade away as quickly as he appeared and it was getting increasingly difficult to track down where he was specifically at any given time. 

────────────────────────

Yoo Joonghyuk opened his eyes to a sky full of stars.

Immediately after, he sneezed and had the feeling that a certain rat was speaking ill of him.

Later, Yoo Joonghyuk looked at this mess and had the sudden urge to repeatedly bash his head against a wall and throw Kim Dokja through multiple buildings simultaneously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope to punch you in the feels tomorrow maybe if it all works out the way i want it to  
> i have no plans after that rip


	8. Excerpt 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Constellations were misplaced along their reflections on the sea waves.
> 
> A timeline so familiar, yet so very different. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i guess i should apologize for all of the mood whiplash from excerpt to excerpt  
> idk what im doing  
> sorry  
> i also almost forgot to post hahaha

Persephone didn’t know who she was anymore. 

She had lost and gained so much of everything.

In this world, Dionysus was not her son. 

In this world, her husband was unfaithful.

In this world, she was jealous and betrayed and buried her sadness and anger deep inside. 

Her heart crumbled with desperation, fear, and hopelessness. With the first infidelity, she could no longer be sure of Hades’ love for her and doubt seeped through her every thought. 

At every show of love or affection, she found herself wondering and asking questions. 

Was it fake? Was it real? Was it an illusion? A façade?

Was it all an elaborate front to keep up the mask of a good husband? 

Was he unsatisfied?

She had given him her freedom, her place in the Overworld, her love, her life.

_Did he turn right around and call their marriage a mistake?_

In an old world, she was the mother of Dionysus. 

In an old world, she had children of her heart and soul, if not blood.

In an old world, her husband sacrificed himself for the Heir’s pursuit of the Epilogue, so loyal till the end to their small little family. 

Her husband loved her and cared for her, showed it with every action, if not with his words. 

_In an old world, not this one, she had everything she could have ever wanted. Her child, her son, her Heir, shone brighter than his parents and showed them all that Fates could be changed and that the End could be reached._

And, of course, there were wars. 

In this world, the conflict was not Olympus and the Underworld. It was gods against titans, the new versus the old, and yet her husband was still ostracized for who he was.

In the past world, it had been just her and her husband against all others. 

It seemed they could not escape prejudice and hostility in _any_ world for many fear death as loss of life.

Conflicting feelings clashed.

Who was she in this new time? 

When her husband was reluctantly accepted upon Olympus and his offspring, not her own, existed to roam the lands? 

They were husband and wife, king and queen, two halves of a whole, yet one of two had forsaken the other, and she had been abandoned. 

Much had been taken away from her here. 

  
She had lost her god son, her Heir, her husband, and her identity in one fall. 

She held memories of both worlds, of both times, and yet… 

She was no longer _truly_ Persephone, Queen of the Darkest Spring, and her husband was no longer Hades, Father of the Rich Night. 

Who was she, if all of the evidence of the previous life were washed away by wind and rain? 

If she can no longer say she is the wife of the Father of the Rich Night, the mother of the God of Wine and Ecstasy? If she can no longer say that she is the Queen of the Darkest Spring?

Constellations were misplaced along their reflections on the sea waves.

A timeline so familiar, yet so very different. 

_Who was she really?_


	9. Excerpt 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim Dokja was petting Cerberus.

Kim Dokja was petting Cerberus.

_Kim Dokja was petting Cerberus._

Nico didn’t know why it was bothering him.

Actually, he knew exactly why it was bothering him.

Nico knew Cerberus was tamer than most thought, having a special liking towards red rubber balls and the people who played with him.

However, he couldn’t understand why he would like _Kim Dokja_ of all people.

If anything, Nico had thought Cerberus would be able to sense the rotten rat hiding in Kim Dokja’s very soul.

And maybe would have tried to chase and hunt him down until it ceased to exist.

Or swallow him whole in one gulp like a snake.

Kim Dokja wasn’t bulky or anything, so it’s not like Cerberus would've choked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oop this was pretty short  
> but with the other excerpts i have in line, while they were more fleshed out and whatever, i didnt know if i liked the way i wrote them :0000  
> so you'll just have to be content with this mess of a chapter, sorry
> 
> posts will be a lot more sporadic as i try to get myself together and figure out how to translate brain ideas into words  
> and do some more research 
> 
> so the time in between chapter uploads will be longer
> 
> imma go cry now cya


	10. Excerpt 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Nico tried to teach Kim Dokja how to play Mythomagic, he didn’t realize he was opening the gates to something _terrible_.

It was childish, but it was the only thing he could think of at the time.

Nico was just trying to do a normal thing that siblings probably, hopefully, did. He just wanted to share his interests with his brother. 

Even if they were from a long time ago, when he was naive and innocent. 

Even if they were from before everything that happened and before he lost what he held dear.

When Nico tried to teach Kim Dokja how to play Mythomagic, he didn’t realize he was opening the gates to something _terrible_.

All he did was pull out some cards and figurines from the remnants of what used to be a massive collection and try to teach him how it worked and how to play. 

Admittedly, his brother wasn’t _bad_ at the game. 

He’d apparently worked at some gaming company called Mino Soft? As part of the quality assurance department? Nico couldn’t recall any company by that name but it seemed like learning and working with game mechanics for video game bug testing helped a lot. 

However, he didn’t realize at the time that Kim Dokja saw this as an _opportunity._

Kim Dokja apparently saw it as a chance to share _his_ obsession afterwards, literally spewing information at Nico about some book called “Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World” and some great and mighty protagonist, who was, coincidentally, _also named Yoo Joonghyuk_. 

And he did this as if it was just a very _natural_ turn of topic.

“Did _you_ write the book? Is that why the protagonist is named after your friend? Why are you so obsessed with Yoo Joonghyuk? Who even is this guy?”

“Of course I didn’t write it. I’m a reader, not a writer. Also, we’re not _friends_ , we’re Companions in Life and Death. He’s a total sunfish. And he _is_ the protagonist of the book. That’s the whole thing.”

Oh. schist. 

His brother was completely insane. How did he manage to miss _this?_

He had apparently read every single one of 3,149 chapters of a web novel. 

With every upload.

_For over a decade._

He had literally been the only reader left to read the whole book.

And _Yoo Joonghyuk_ was the protagonist?

And they were Companions in Life and Death? 

Really? Why? _And how did it happen?_

And most importantly, this was _Kim Dokja_.

Nico couldn’t even tell if half of the words he said were true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> friday the thirteenth yall  
> it's been a week  
> and i have risen from the depths of the void  
> to bring you rat content  
> im sorry  
> ive been thinking but i still dont know what im doing  
> i wanted to write something cool but  
> my ideas are all infected  
> by kdj rat thoughts
> 
> did i say sporadic posting because i meant hiatus upon hiatus  
> time to disappear yet again  
> cya


	11. Excerpt 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, based on his track record, if it had been him in the flesh he would probably have _died_ or something instead of disappearing. 
> 
> And his Company would have killed him once more for doing so.

When he heard people talking about a man in a black coat, who called himself “Kim Dokja,” doing things he had never done in places he had never been, a certain rat in a bright white coat knew that his plan, or what little scraps he’d decided to call a plan, had worked.

He heard a lot of rumors.

Ones like tales of the man plowing through a monster army only to disappear immediately afterwards. 

Honestly, based on his track record, if it had been Kim Dokja in the flesh he would probably have _died_ or something instead of disappearing. 

And his Company would have killed him once more for doing so.

His life-and-death-companion, on the other hand, would surely have had a dramatic exit befitting of a true protagonist. 

And a black coat? Please. Only Yoo Joonghyuk, pro-gamer, had the black Infinity Dimension Space Coat.

With this he knew that somehow, despite all logic, his plan had worked.

Somewhat.

It was a work in progress.

Obviously, Yoo Joonghyuk was an angry rampaging sunfish on the search for “Yoo Joonghyuk.” 

He’d probably grab him by the throat again to say hello.

As he’d said before, it was all a work in progress.

Kim Dokja shook his head to clear his thoughts. Annoying sunfish. Beloved protagonist as he was, sometimes Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t the main priority. 

Kim Dokja had another problem to deal with.

The Mist.

He’d heard the children talking about it at the camp and the gods mentioning it once or twice occasionally, but he hadn’t thought it was very important. 

But that was until he realized that it was like the censorship in the Past with the Star Stream. 

As an anomaly, the Mist had apparently ended up covering up his existence from the normal populace like it would monsters. 

His face was being censored again. 

Oh, how he dreaded being called the Ugliest King.

He hoped they’d come up with a better moniker this time around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not dead  
> yet  
> i have risen  
> from the void  
> yet again  
> to bring you kdj rat content  
> this chap's kinda short  
> and my writing hasn't gotten any better  
> but here you go  
> enjoy  
> tomorrow's chap is longer  
> but idk how to feel about it  
> and after that  
> i will be gone once more  
> since life is suffering  
> hah


	12. Excerpt 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time the stranger arrived, Dionysus had looked as if he wanted the world to end.

When the god of wine mentioned that he knew the stranger, Chiron had taken it with a grain of salt. Dionysus, while a god and a deity, was not necessarily the sort to be trusted when it came to social connections.

The first time the stranger arrived, Dionysus had looked as if he wanted the world to end. Like he dearly wished for the planet to stop turning and for him to be taken out of his misery. He had pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, channeling all of the tired energy of something akin to a parent with a misbehaving and excitable child. 

Taking a nonchalant sip of the coke in his hand, Dionysus set down his cards. 

That constellation had once been an incarnation.

Looking back, Dionysus had called him a rude human. Eager. One unwilling to bend to the influences of Dionysus’ particular brand of madness, never letting his guard down in all the time they had interacted. A human, like one other that had come long, long before, who was foolishly brave. 

He liked rude humans.

Dionysus had given him a chance to meet the Underworld’s rulers on a whim. 

Kim Dokja had then taken that opportunity and ran with it, the world and it’s story changing and warping around his steady footsteps, no longer following the cycles it had repeated over and over.

Gigantomachia had been the turning point. The peak. The culmination of the tensions that had been building since the very beginning. 

Olympus would win. It had been so for the many repetitions of the story’s telling, the ending always predictable and unchanging. 

It had been so for as long as they had known it to be, only to be completely remade by the coming of this one foolish and rude human-turned-constellation.

The fates had shifted and the gears had begun to turn in reverse.

The story veered off of the planned trajectory, the predicted course, and hurtled into the unforeseen.

Chiron had taken his words with doubt and caution in equal measures, but Dionysus figured that it was all in vain and completely unnecessary.

While Kim Dokja was a rat and would always and forever be a rat, most, if not all, of the sacrifices he had made had been taken from his own being. He had traded in his lifeblood, and chipped away at his vitality, time and time again, for another chance, another step forward, to seeing the ending he yearned for.

He was only a threat to his enemies. Those who opposed him, those who put his loved ones at risk, and those who sought an ending different from what he pursued.

While Kim Dokja was bound to cause chaos and discord and spread mayhem throughout the known realms, the future now lay up for grabs. A sort of dice roll. Another game. 

An anomaly and outside influence on the fate that was to be.

Dionysus, despite himself, was sure that whatever Kim Dokja did, and whatever trailed behind him, would be riveting. It would likely have influence over all the happenings in the world, in all the realms. Nearly nothing would lay left untouched by the madness that followed the Ugliest King.

It was a madness that Dionysus was coming to begrudgingly respect.

Kim Dokja, while still a massive, skull-crushing headache in and of itself, would bring what was sure to break through the monotony of normal camp life. 

Silently toasting to the constellation who would overturn everything they had known to be true, Dionysus raised his can of coke, the tug at the corner of his lips and the unusual gleam in his eye the only other tells of his anticipation of what was to come.

“Chiron, my old friend, things are about to get a tad bit more interesting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i tried to make a chiron chap but it turned into a dionysus chap cuz i dont remember enough about chiron  
> and even then i struggle with writing dionysus  
> >:0000 everything is difficult  
> i hope this chapter makes sense lmao
> 
> and now that my work here is done for now  
> i shall depart  
> and disappear  
> into the abyss  
> and into another hiatus  
> cya  
> the rat content will return one day


	13. Excerpt 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His heart ached, a pain in his chest that clawed at his lungs and strained his ribs in a constant pulsing reminder. He ran his hands over his face, squeezing his eyes shut as if it would change reality or hide him from his mistakes. Hot, hot liquid streams ran down his cheeks. 

His heart ached, a pain in his chest that clawed at his lungs and strained his ribs in a constant pulsing reminder. He ran his hands over his face, squeezing his eyes shut as if it would change reality or hide him from his mistakes. Hot, hot liquid streams ran down his cheeks. 

He was the scum of the earth. No, he was worse than scum. Hades, or this worldline’s Hades, had been unfaithful. He had trampled over their marriage vows, set his eyes upon another, and dragged their love through grime and mud, tainting their time together with the bitter taste of betrayal. It was not him and yet it was. The Father of the Rich Night struggled to come to terms with the fact that he, no matter whether it had been the constellation or the deity, had turned his back on his precious wife. 

His lungs heaved as he tried not to make a sound, soft sobs and pitiful gasps escaping through the pain, pain, _pain_ of realization and denial. What honor did he have left? For him to betray his beloved, his Spring, his love, he had none. What king? What god? What faithful husband? If he had the gall to break their marriage vows, could he be trusted? If he could not be trusted to honor his love for his wife, could he be trusted for anything less? 

After the grief and yearning for what he had lost swept through him in a hurricane, the anger crept in. Anger at himself. Anger at this worldline. Anger at everything. It was not just anger, really. It was fury. 

Hades was furious. 

He felt the urge to lay waste to everything this worldline’s Hades had possession of or cherished. He wanted to slaughter the women he’d bedded, the children he’d spawned, for they were all living reminders that his love for his wife was lacking. That for some inane and absurd reason this version of himself thought that it was alright to betray his wife in such a way. He wanted to burn everything down, drag it all into the depths of Tartarus, just to jump in himself right after. 

But he could not. He could not because it would cause his wife grief. He could not because he would be taking the easy way out. He would be running away and doing what he wanted without his partner’s input. Without his partner’s knowledge. They were married. They were one. They were to act as one and decide as one and he was not going to turn his back on his wife any more than this worldline’s self had. Even if it would be difficult, even if it tore at him to admit what this version of himself had done, he would do right by his wife. She deserved better than this and she deserved better than him taking the easy route. 

Hades clenched and unclenched his fists. He righted his clothing, straightened his spine, lifted his chin, and stepped out to greet his wife. She turned to look at him with wary eyes, heartbreak and pain streaking through her expressions just to be hidden and tucked away. His heart broke and his words tumbled out as his hands reached to embrace her and hold her as they wept together.

“I’m sorry, love. My beloved wife, my queen, my Darkest Spring. I’m so, so very sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> life is a struggle  
> i crawl out of the depths of the abyss  
> to offer this ramble to appease you hungry rats  
> i hope it made sense  
> im actually having such a hard time lmao  
> school is misery  
> into another hiatus i go  
> cya


End file.
